Abstract

In this Letter, we experimentally show that transient phenomenons in self-mixing signals from a moving target contain information about the target reflectivity and distance. These transient phenomenons are well explained with a dynamical model of the laser diode, which is used to trace an abacus giving the target reflectivity and distance from a measured high-bandwidth, self-mixing signal.

(a) Abacus giving the oscillations period 2π/Ω and decay time τ versus τext and r3. (b) Using the abacus with experimental data corresponding to Fig. 3 to estimate τext and r3. (c) Using the abacus with the data points at 14.89 ns in Fig. 4 to evaluate a ratio of r3. The gray areas represent uncertainties on the experimental data.